The present invention relates to a lightning protection device in the form of a discharge strip for dissipating the effects of a lightning strike. The lightning protection device of the present invention has particular utility with ships, boats, and other marine vessels.
Lightning strikes are very dangerous natural phenomena. The high voltage electrical discharges associated with them can cause significant damage to structures and to marine vessels such as recreation boats and the like. In extreme situations, they can cause fires capable of destroying such structures and vessels. The strikes can also cause substantial injury, and potentially death, to individuals.
Marine vessels are susceptible to lighting strikes because of the masts and radio antennas normally used in boating. The masts and antennas are points of incipient receipt of lightning strikes, which strikes can cause serious damage to sensitive and important electrical equipment onboard the vessels. In the absence of efficient, economical, and reliable lightning strike protection, owners are reluctant to venture out onto open waters whenever there is even a slight possibility of thunderstorms.
A number of attempts have been made to produce effective lighting protection devices which discharge the electrical potential carried by a lightning strike to ground. U.S. Pat. No. 5,036,785 to Kittredge, Jr. et al. illustrates a lightning protection installation for a boat comprising a copper lightning rod mounted on the top of the mast, or in the case of a power boat, mounted on the deck, a copper wire attached to the rod and running downwardly to a point where it is attached to a retractable copper conductor. The copper conductor is retractable through a plastic of fiberglass tube or box molded or inserted in the hull or attached to a centerboard, if available. When the conductor is raised to the passive position, it is protected from the formation of marine growth; and when it is lowered, the conductor provides sufficient wettable electrical conducting grounding surface to conduct the lightning to water ground.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,919,956 to Invernizzi relates to a lightning protection installation comprising a lightning rod which is grounded by an inner conducting core of a coaxial cable having a grounded outer conducting sheath separated from the core by an insulating layer. The lightning rod may be connected to a ground plate by the conductor core.
Despite the existence of such lightning protection devices, there still remains a need for an inexpensive, easy to install lightning protection device.